


STAY PUT: ONE HOUR AND A WHOLE LIFE

by Banbury



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: AU (sort of), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 22:17:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15374568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Banbury/pseuds/Banbury
Summary: Some events open your eyes and show what you really want in this life.Prompt: In Night Train, after Jim gets thrown off the train, Blair says "As a matter of fact, I may be reevaluating my whole situation very soon." What happened with that?





	STAY PUT: ONE HOUR AND A WHOLE LIFE

**Author's Note:**

> Actually I don't remember what challenge it was written for, just remembered suddenly that I have a lot of old stuff I never posted here and decided just to do it. 
> 
> Beta: amazing Jane Davitt  
> Prompt by: PsychGirl
> 
>  
> 
> Author’s notes: Sunrise on the 3rd of December 1994 was at 07:39, so Jim was thrown from the train somewhere around 07:00 and then the train chase took place around 08:00, so I’d put the events of the story somewhere in this period.

**1994, December 3rd**

 

**07:07 am**

The door slammed shut in the frame and silence reigned in the compartment. Blair looked down at his feet not sure what to do or to feel right then.

“Boy, he sure had me fooled.” Isabel was watching him out of the corner of her eyes. Blair shrugged, feigning dispassionateness.

“Yeah, join the club.” He felt a nervous tremor deep inside him. “Man, this sucks! I’m definitely not having a good time!”

” Neither rain nor sleet...” Isabel clearly didn’t feel the gravity of his situation and faced with her mockery Blair erupted.

“Hey! I’m just along for the ride. As a matter of fact, I may be reevaluating my whole situation very soon.”

“Why? Do you think Ellison…” She’d already written him off, Blair realized bitterly.

“No! People can fall off a train without…” He sighed. “Anyway, that’s not your ordinary guy.”

He felt himself on the verge of tears – for a couple of months he’d held the dream of his life at arm’s length and he'd wasted his chance to get closer. Somewhere at the back of his mind he still hoped, like some part of him wouldn’t give up, but he’d seen people who'd fallen off a train before, and it wasn’t a nice look for them. Blair felt something tug at his hand and shook himself out of his bitter thoughts.

Isabel was trying to free herself from the handcuffs.

Blair smiled crookedly and patted her on the shoulder. “Let me, please.” The attorney shifted to give him some space. Blair breathed out as if preparing himself for something familiar and well practiced, but still unpleasant, closed his eyes, and let his hands work on their own. From a hidden pocket inside his shirt, he fished out a small metal stick with an intricate looking hook. Blair twisted the stick in his fingers, then inserted it in the lock and turned. Something snapped inside and the handcuffs opened.

“Wha-a…” Isabel turned her eyes from the remaining handcuff on her arm to Blair and back. He shrugged, picked up his backpack and went to the door, pausing before turning the doorknob. 

“Stay put. I’ve some things to do.” He didn’t wait for the answer, shut the door behind him and silently slid down the wall. He wanted to wail, to scream his rage, to beat somebody within an inch of their life… But he couldn’t afford to be emotional right now. He curled into himself for several seconds, panting and blinking the tears back, bit his hand, then sighed heavily and reached inside the backpack.

The spare cell phone, more like a mini laptop with all the necessary functions to talk, send reports, find information, and decipher any code, reacted to his hushed voice by blinking to life.

“Sandburg. This is an emergency; put me through to the Colonel.” Nobody answered, but after several beeps, a tired voice asked him.  
“Sandburg?”

“Sir. My… subject was thrown off the train. I think…” He swallowed and forced himself to say it aloud. “I think I need to reevaluate my project. I need to…” He stopped again, thinking what he really needed to do. “I need to do something, but I'm not sure I can do it on my own.” Blair let his words hang in the air.

There was silence and a sense of wordless support on the other end. Blair patiently waited; patience was the only thing he could afford right now – patience and hope.

“Stay put, Blair. I’ll contact operations section and get back to you in a few minutes.” 

Blair nodded, forgetting that nobody could see him, and switched the device off. He knew he needed to get going, but it was difficult to put his body in motion. He felt a hundred years old, immensely tired and worn out.

He couldn't have imagined a situation like this all these years ago when he signed up for The Program at Stoddard’s insistence. Blair remembered Eli talking about the new possibilities for his studies due to the sources involved in The Program, of the great people he'd met through it. He hadn’t told his best student anything specific, but Blair was too young or too enthusiastic at that time to think of any consequences besides the potential rewards.

Consequences! He laughed mirthlessly, before pushing himself up off the floor and sticking his head through the compartment’s door. Isabel sat stiffly on the couch.

“Um.” Blair found that he just couldn’t face her right now and decided to go into the next compartment. “Look, it’ll be okay. I … I’m trying to reach our Captain and I’ll be nearby, just holler if you need something.”

She nodded and reached for her bag. Blair left her without a second glance and flopped down on the couch in the next compartment. 

There was something final about the situation. It wasn’t his first work for and with The Program, but it was the first one where he'd became so fully emotionally involved with the subject, and he knew without doubt that it was his last chance to decide what to do with his life. 

He'd held the rank of Scientist for nearly ten years now, since he joined The Program at eighteen. He still knew next to nothing about the whole structure, the people involved and the scale of its work. Furthermore, it didn’t bother him much. All he needed to live with was knowing that he was working for the good of humanity.

The Program was a philanthropic organization, that dealt with concrete human problems, sometimes as minor as a child left to live on the street or home abuse – it depended on what the members of The Program found necessary to put their time and money into. There was no money to gain – only to spend. The things the upper organization provided were access to inaccessible sources and unquestionable support. In exchange, they received the results of their operatives' work, be it a saved life or the solution to a scientific problem.

Blair rested, waiting for the Colonel to call him back. The man was among the very few people he was acquainted with within The Program, along with Eli. The others were a German anthropologist, Mark, whom he’d worked closely with on an expedition, and, Rose-Mary, an attorney from Seattle. He was a loner in his work and had never been in a situation that required outside help.

He pictured the Colonel – strangely enough this nickname suited the eminent philologist, who was among the founders of The Program, Head of the Scientific division, quite well – a tall, well built man with a military bearing although he was an anti-militarist like Naomi, sitting in his study in Yale, surrounded by books and phones, handsets pressed to each ear. Blair almost smiled at the picture and was unprepared for the call when it came. He twitched, dropped his backpack and blindly reached for the cell phone.

 

**07:25**

There was darkness. Even with the lights from the windows above darkness surrounded him. Jim tried to breathe steadily, but it was impossible in his awkward position under the train, clutching at the small protuberances under the bottom of the coach. 

He strained in an attempt to concentrate on his sight, needing to find a way out from under the train, but the pulsing on the edges of his vision from his reaction to the cold medicine didn’t help him at all. Jim tried to remember Blair’s voice as he’d coached him during one of their sessions, but the sudden shrill of his cell phone made him twitch and he lost his concentration. He tried to fish the phone out of his jacket, but his hand slipped and the phone ended up on the rails behind. 

 

**07:37**

“Listen, Sandburg, stay put and keep the phone close. We have one of the operatives nearby; he’ll contact you any minute.” The Colonel was speaking with somebody else on the other line and hung up abruptly, after giving Blair all the information he had.

Blair sat still for a full five minutes, not actually waiting for the call, just staring into space with a blank expression. Now, when he was about to take an active part in the assignment, not as a sidekick, but a rightful member, he was afraid. To tell the truth – he was terrified. He wasn’t sure he could do it without…

Now wasn’t the time for self-revelations. Blair finally shook off his stupor and checked the device for any incoming mail. There was nothing new. All he had to do now was to wait for the call.

 

**07:45**

Simon shivered. The morning breeze was chilly, even more here in the mountains. However, the biggest part of his uneasiness was due to the anticipation of the action – in five more minutes, the train would come into view and they had to stop it. Simon shivered again.  
He felt his spare cell phone shudder to life. He took it out and reluctantly put to his ear.

“Banks. And it better be really urgent, Dowson, I’m in the middle of the ambush.”

“It’s urgent, Simon. Our man from the scientific division is on the train you are waiting for. He needs help.”

Simon groaned. “You’re killing me here, Dowson. I’ve enough on my hands right now, and it’ll be one too many scientists that I can deal with for the time being.” He heard a sympathetic chuckle on the other end.

“Sorry, man. I’ll put you through – just check it…”

There was the sound of a big engine to the right and a shrill whistle. Simon shut the phone, rushing forward, calling the other men to move. “All right, everybody, this is it! Let's go!” 

The next several minutes seemed to stretch for hours – gunshots; cops shouting something unintelligible; the train whistling. Everybody rushed about under the fire from the coach and the locomotive. Then there were lights in the trail end of the train and deafening silence.

Simon stood passively for a moment, then turned to the other cops.

“Is there a service road that runs along the tracks?” He had to reach that damn train and find his men there.

“Yes, sir.” One of the cops waved ahead.

Simon couldn’t see the way and turned to him again. “How do I get to it?” 

“About three miles north of here where the tracks cross Robinson Road.” 

Simon nodded his thanks on the way to his car. “Get a couple of your guys! Have them get in a car and follow me!”

He put his foot on the gas and the car speeded forward. Simon was concentrating so hard on the road, he didn't hear the phone at first. Then he couldn’t find it. Then he was distracted with the sound of sirens behind him and had to ask again, “What? What are you talking about, Dowson?”

“Just listen here. I’m putting you through, Banks, and you have to talk with this guy before he panics.”

“Okay, one mi…” He hadn’t time to finish.

“Oh, man! What shall I do? The bad guy took out my partner and he is… my…”

Simon couldn’t believe his ears – this scientific guy sounded suspiciously like Sandburg, Simon could swear it was. He put the phone down for a second, shook his head, and then put it to his ear again.

“Sandburg?”

“…my partner… Oh?”

“Sandburg? Is that you?” 

There were silence and timid, “Um? Er, Simon…?”

“Sandburg.” Simon sighed, resigned. He wasn’t sure he could endure the idea of Sandburg as part of The Program, but he had no choice, really, so he sighed one more time to make it even and began to instruct his new… partner, it seemed. “Okay, Sandburg, I’m trying to catch the train, so you need to find Jim…”

“Oh, man! I’m telling you here – Jim was…” 

 

**08:03**

Blair stared before him stupidly, still pressing the phone to the ear. Well, he could deal with many things in his life, especially later, when he’d found Jim, but this… This was a shock! Simon as a member of The Program. On the other hand, he could imagine it very well given Simon’s tendency to help people. He wished he could’ve shared this news with Jim.

Blair ruefully stomped on that thought, shoved the phone in his backpack, and went to check on Isabel. Simon had told him to wait until they met each other and Blair had nothing to do for the next few minutes.

Isabel was quite comfortable in her compartment, though a bit frightened with all the shouting and shooting. Blair collapsed on the seat next to her and closed his eyes.

It suddenly became quite clear to him what he really wanted from his life – he wanted the type of brotherhood he saw in Major Crimes; he wanted to be needed not only as a curiosity or source for information, but really needed, to make changes for the better, to be there for people.. To take risks. He tried to push this thought down; he wasn’t into danger, but he kept on seeing Jim in his mind’s eye and knew he’d take that kind of risk – to be close to people he…loved, to tell them he loved them – any time he’d have the chance again.  
Blair almost smiled at that, feeling restless suddenly, needing to do something right now. He jumped to his feet and turned to the door the second he heard a loud knock.

“Sandburg!”

He couldn’t believe his ears. Blair pushed the door and there he was – wonderfully alive, dirty, determined as always.

“Jim! Oh, you're alive!”

 

**Epilogue**

**15:37, the same day**

“Damn. I really wanted to get you back to the lab and see if we could study this. You know, you could take some more of that cold stuff, in a controlled environment, of course.” Blair began to mentally re-write his chapter on medicine in a Sentinel’s life. He really needed to get Jim to the lab in the light of his new revelations. 

“Okay.”

Hmmm, that was easy. “Great.”

“Under one condition. You hang underneath a speeding train while I spend the night handcuffed to Isabel, huh?” Jim smiled triumphantly, patted his cheek, and headed to the door.

Blair looked after his Sentinel thoughtfully and smiled decidedly. "Oh, no, man! I think we’ll hang Isabel underneath a speeding train, and I’ll handcuff you to myself, sweetcheeks.”

He shook his head and hurried after his friend.


End file.
